'To be, or not to be, that is the question,'
is thus paraphrased by Johnson:—'Before I can form any rational scheme of action under this pressure of distress, it is necessary to decide whether, after our present state, we are to be or not to be.'
[176] See post, March 30, April 14 and 15, 1778, and Boswell's Hebrides, Oct. 25.
[177] Wesley wrote on Jan. 21, 1767 (Journal, iii. 263):—'I had a conversation with an ingenious man who proved to a demonstration that it was the duty of every man that could to be "clothed in purple and fine linen," and to "fare sumptuously every day;" and that he would do abundantly more good hereby than he could do by "feeding the hungry and clothing the naked." O the depth of human understanding! What may not a man believe if he will?' Much the same argument Johnson, thirty-three years earlier, had introduced in one of his Debates (Works, xi. 349). He makes one of the speakers say:—'Our expenses are not all equally destructive; some, though the method of raising them be vexatious and oppressive, do not much impoverish the nation, because they are refunded by the extravagance and luxury of those who are retained in the pay of the court.' See post, March 23, 1783. The whole argument is nothing but Mandeville's doctrine of 'private vices, public benefits.' See post, April 15, 1778.
[178] See ante, iii. 24.
[179] Johnson no doubt refers to Walpole in the following passage (Works, viii. l37):—'Of one particular person, who has been at one time so popular as to be generally esteemed, and at another so formidable as to be universally detested, Mr. Savage observed that his acquisitions had been small, or that his capacity was narrow, and that the whole range of his mind was from obscenity to politicks, and from politicks to obscenity.' This passage is a curious comment on Pope's lines on Sir Robert—
'Seen him I have, but in his happier hour
Of social pleasure, ill-exchanged for power.'
Epilogue to the Satires, i. 29.
[180] Most likely Boswell himself. See ante, March 25, 1776, and post, April 10, 1778, for Johnson's dislike of questioning. See also ante, ii. 84, note 3.
[181] See ante, April 14, 1775.